aREA OF STUDY.

​Dr. Danielle L. Beatty Moody is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Beatty Moody earned a Ph.D. at the City University of New York, Graduate Center in Social/Personality Psychology, Health Psychology Concentration.

Her work focuses on linkages of psychological and social correlates of racial/ethnic disparities to cardiovascular disease risk. In this area, Dr. Beatty Moody is primarily interested in unfair treatment overall and due specifically to racial/ethnic discrimination that unfolds across the lifespan. She also examines other social factors, primarily socioeconomic status (SES) and individual characteristics, e.g., trait anger, as related to cardiovascular disease risk. Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease risk markers range from hypertension, heart rate variability, and inflammation, to sleep disturbances and behavioral factors (e.g., smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and obesity). Her work draws on traditional self-report as well as ecological momentary methodologies and novel ambulatory approaches for assessing blood pressure (ambulatory blood pressure monitor), sleep (actigraphy), and heart rate (ambulatory heart rate variability monitor).

tHE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH INEQUITIES LAB.

Dr. Beatty Moody is also Director of The Social Determinants of Health Inequities Lab (SoDHI). The SoDHI Lab seeks to identify and ameliorate pathophysiological linkages of psychosocial and environmental factors to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular endpoints across the life course, particularly in racial/ethnic minorities for which health disparities are disproportionately observed. To investigate these endpoints, they utilize various technological modalities including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain, and ambulatory methodologies such as ambulatory blood pressure assessment, actigraphy (to assess sleep), and heart rate variability. The SoDHI lab explores early life social disadvantage, socioeconomic status, and varying forms of discrimination (e.g., everyday, lifetime, and racism/ethnic/racial discrimination) as correlates of health disparities. SoDHI also examines sources of intrapersonal and interpersonal resilience which might ameliorate these linkages. We also collaborate with the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study group at the National Institute on Aging (see https:/handls.nih.gov).

Currently, Dr. Beatty Moody is funded by a 5-year Career Development Award (K01) from the National Institute of Aging.